


What Came Before

by samariumwriting



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Parent-Child Relationship, Pre-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 06:04:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19901020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samariumwriting/pseuds/samariumwriting
Summary: To Robin, his life started in a field with Chrom. But something had come before; he had to reach that field, after all. Maybe someone was there with him, in that forgotten past. And to cause the loss of those memories...something had to have happened.





	What Came Before

**Author's Note:**

> Just a warning that this has content that only really makes sense if you've played up to and including Ch23 of Awakening, but I've taken a lot of liberties with filling canon in.

He’d been wandering Ylisse alongside his mother; she’d wanted to show him at least a little portion of Plegia. He didn’t know why she’d chosen then - she’d always been so adamant that he had to stay far away from the eyes of any of the Grimleal. Just in case one of them could see what slept within his blood.

But she’d chosen that time, for some reason, and if Robin was being honest, there wasn’t that much to see. His mother had always told him about how hard it was for her to leave her homeland, and he always felt bad when he knew she was yearning for it, but now he wasn’t sure he understood.

The bits of Plegia he saw were not much different to Ylisse, on the whole, and the bits that were, well, they were pretty ugly. He didn’t see the attraction of deserts at all. They were so hostile, and they could barely be called magnificent. He preferred the lush greens of the lands he’d grown up in.

Not to mention the Grimleal, of course. They never once encountered one, but he’d heard so much from his mother. The existence of such a fervent cult just...Robin felt like he wouldn’t want to be anywhere near that even if he didn’t have a child who was going to be directly affected by all its actions. Seeing snatches of Plegia just made him happier for what his mother had done for him.

They were headed towards the southern coast of Ylisse, skirting along the border with Plegia, when Robin started feeling a bit off. Slightly dizzy, slightly strange. He drank some water and thought nothing more of it; travel was hard on the body and he hadn’t eaten that much. The feeling persisted, but it probably would until he got some sleep.

An hour later, he started getting a feeling of stabbing pain between his eyes. It was concerning, but initially he ignored it. Headaches were a thing. Food and sleep would fix that. It was nothing to worry about, just an exacerbated form of what he’d been experiencing before.

But when the stabbing pain didn’t subside, he turned to his mother. “I’m feeling a bit ill,” he said, nearly flinching when his voice sounded off. “Could we stop and rest?” She looked over at him, a concerned frown on her face, and then nodded.

“I’ll go and fetch you some water,” she said. “Hand me your waterskin?” Robin nodded, tossing it to her before slumping down under a tree. The pain was escalating. “Here, have my sword, the tome is enough to protect me and if you can’t even stand I don’t want you wielding something that can start fires.”

Robin nodded again, squeezing his eyes shut. Gods, it really did hurt. He heard the sound of her footsteps fading away, and then nothing. The sound of wind in the trees and the roar of the blood in his ears. His heart beating faster. His stomach twisting in knots over and over until he weakly rolled his head to the side and heaved onto the grass, all without opening his eyes. 

Shakily, he stood. He didn’t know why. He couldn’t quite remember why he’d sat down in the first place, but he had a keen sense that he needed to move on for some reason. He held his sword shakily in his right hand, holding it out in front of his body in case someone approached.

He stumbled around, his eyes squinted, trying desperately not to let too much light in. Everything hurt. His whole body felt like it was on fire, somehow, yet when he looked down at himself he looked fine, if shaky. He kept walking. He didn’t know exactly where he was going, but he also wasn’t exactly sure where he was to start with.

He came to a stream, and saw a woman kneeling over it. There was something- something familiar- something, something...his mind whirled frantically between ‘she is important’ and ‘she is a threat’ and he didn’t know what to trust. He stood there, practically doubled over with pain, watching her. She hadn’t spotted him.

When she turned around, his mind practically stopped functioning. He didn’t know what was going on. Pain spiked through his head, the whispers of a voice he couldn’t make out filling his ears. She spoke, but he couldn’t hear her. He clutched his head, the sword that had been loosely held in one hand clattering to the ground.

“..bin? Robin, are you okay?” Dimly, he recognised her voice. Something was very wrong here. He knew something had gone wrong. But he didn’t understand enough of what was happening to fully grasp everything.

He groaned, and she was next to him, supporting his weight with hers. She was...someone important. So why was his brain shouting at him to kill her? “What’s wrong?” She manoeuvered him against a tree, and once he was slumped at her side she retrieved her sword and sat in front of him.

“Look at me, Robin,” she said, cupping his chin with her hands and tipping his face up to meet her eyes. Everything hurt, and this hurt worst of all. He was so confused, he didn’t understand what was happening. Through all the pain and his clouded thoughts, he couldn’t even work out who she was.

On meeting his eyes, the woman gasped and stumbled backwards. There was fear there, and he didn’t understand. “I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice shaking. “I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

“You- I-” There was so much pain. He couldn’t work out what he was meant to say, or how to put the words together. His grip on something was sliding, but he couldn’t work out what it was. Or why it was so important that part of him was clinging to it so tightly.

“I’m going to see if I can go to the nearest town and get some help,” she said, hurrying off back the way they’d come, crossing the stream. He watched her go, unsure of the emotions he felt. They were mostly just pain.

She was gone, but the confusion and hurt kept getting worse and worse. He wasn’t sure if he was slipping in and out of consciousness, or if time started blurring together, or if he’d been moved, but his feet were wet now. He must have crossed the stream at some point. His head hurt so much and he couldn’t open his eyes, could barely breathe.

Flashes of light. A sound of pain he couldn’t comprehend. He dipped in and out of awareness, knowing that something was happening but not understanding what. When he was next aware, a tome and a weapon were at his side. He didn’t know how he’d managed to move, how he’d done anything, or where he was.

The last thing he knew was an open space, grass. The pain intensified so much he fell to his knees, and for a few short moments he was positive he would die. He didn’t think it was possible to feel this much pain. He’d felt pain before (he couldn’t remember when, and that was scaring him too), but nothing like this.

But all of a sudden, it left. As did everything else. Within an instant, every thought in his mind stopped, along with the pain, and when he tried to retain his train of thought, it was gone. It was all gone. The only thing left was darkness, and the beginnings of a dream.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! :) if you could leave a comment that'd be super appreciated. I also take writing requests, so if you fancy anything you could suggest something here or on my twitter @samariumwriting


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